Celebrate!
February is a kind of month on the edge, not yet spring, but not quite winter still. Most of our February holidays seem to celebrate that place on the edge of the seasons. So whether you live in a place where the trees are already blooming or in a place where you expect snow on the ground for at least another month, click on the links below to find fun facts and activities for celebrating the holidays of this in-between season.
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We Honor… |
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| Black History Month in the US by choosing Frances Ellen Watkins Harper as our person of the month from UU history. Frances was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1825—a place and time where many African-Americans were still slaves. Frances, however, was born to free parents, and after her mother died she was raised by an aunt and uncle who actively worked for civil rights and education for Black people. When she was fourteen, Frances went to work as a paid servant in a Quaker household which had a wonderful library of books, and the family that employed her encouraged Frances in her love of writing. Her poems appeared in newspapers, and in 1845 a collection of her poems was published.
In 1850 conditions got worse for free Blacks in Maryland, so Frances moved to Ohio, and then Pennsylvania, where she helped slaves escape to Canada through the Underground Railroad. She continued to write, and have her poems and stories published, and she became a popular speaker on the subject of the abolition of slavery. Because of the many magazine articles she had published, she was called the mother of African-American journalism.
Before the Civil War began, Frances became familiar with Unitarians through their work on abolition and the Underground Railroad, and in 1870 she joined the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, although she also continued to be involved with the AME (African Methodist Episcopal) church she was raised in. She liked the Unitarian's commitment to political change, and their view of Jesus as a moral leader. However, she also liked working with Black churches in her neighborhood, directly helping the poor and encouraging African-American kids to stay in school and build better lives.
After slavery was abolished, Frances turned her energy to the struggle for women's rights, and the effort to make women able to vote. She continues to write and have her work published, and she was a leader in such organizations as the National Association of Colored Women and the Universal Peace Union. When Frances died in 1911, her funeral was held at the Unitarian church.
Read more about Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. |
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Act!
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper used her skills as a writer to work for a better world, and so can you. The most obvious way, of course, is through writing letters to government officials—on the local, state/provincial, or national level—to express your concern about something you see going on. The issue could be as big as global warming, or as local as the need for a bike lane on a street near you. Letters to your local newspaper are also a great way of getting your voice heard. But Frances Harper knew that there were other ways to affect people's opinions, including writing fiction and poetry. If you write a story or poem on a topic that matters to you, whether it be caring for the environment or the damaging effects of bullying, and get it printed in your school paper or literary journal, that can be an even more personal way of opening people's minds and hearts to issues they might not be thinking about. For that matter, if you have a poem on a theme that has to do with making the world a better place, send it to me at lungar@uua.org and I'll be happy to post it on our KidTalk site so that folks around the world can read it!
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Nurturing Your Spirit
Usually we think of spiritual practices as being very quiet and calm, like meditation. But you can nurture the deep connections between your mind and body, and yourself and the rest of the world in active and even outrageous ways, too. February 20 th is Mardi Gras, a wild and crazy holiday which leads into the serious season of Lent—the 40 days before Easter. During Lent people do practice serious kinds of spiritual practices, including going without things they might usually have. But Mardi Gras is a time to get wild and crazy and go overboard and celebrate the good things of life. You can find out more about celebrating Mardi Gras in the Celebrate! section above. But you might want to just try a spiritual practice that doesn't require all the floats and costumes and finery that people get into for the holiday. Just put on your favorite music and dance!
For as long as there have been people, all over the world folks have danced to connect themselves to the spirits of the world around them, to celebrate, to ask for rain or luck with hunting, and to express who they were and how they felt. You don't need to know any special steps or moves to have your own spiritual practice of dancing. All you need is a way to make or play music and the willingness to move your body. |
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Principles in Practice
Our second principle is "Justice, equity and compassion in human relationships." In other words, all people should be treated fairly and kindly. It was "justice, equity and compassion" that Frances Ellen Watkins Harper tried to communicate through her writings.
But what exactly does "justice, equity and compassion" mean? "Equity," as you might guess from the sound of the word, means "equal," treating everyone the same. "Compassion," on the other hand, means caring about people, and trying to make things better for them. Do you think there are ever times when "equity" and "compassion" might take you in different directions?
For instance, there has been a big, ongoing argument in the U.S. about affirmative action. Affirmative action means giving extra chances to people, such as African-Americans, who have historically been discriminated against. So, for instance, affirmative action might say that when a college was choosing which students to admit, they should give some amount of preference to admitting Black students, if there are a lot fewer Black people in the school than those of other races. This would not be "equity," treating everybody the same, but it would be "compassion," caring about people who maybe have not gotten as many chances in life. What do you think is best in this situation? Should the college choose "equity" or "compassion"? Why? |
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Ask CLiF
Ask CLiF any questions you have about religion or living
a good life.
Dear CLiF,
I know I saw something about Sundae Services—how to build a worship service, with parts representing the ice cream, sauce, sprinkles, etc. But now I can't find it. Do you know where I can locate this again?
Dear Writer,
Just let me say that we're happy to get questions from grown-ups as well as kids. So thanks for writing! The "Make Your Own Sunday" piece is in the most recent (winter '06-'07) issue of uu&me!. A publication of the CLF, uu&me! comes to you as an insert in the UU World, but it is also available, including back issues, online at www.clfuu.org/uume. There's all kinds of great stuff available there, so check it out!
—CLiF
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